On the growth of football within the United States, to where Palace travel on Sunday…
“I’ve seen phases, really. In the 1970s, when they really started to launch it – and I remember all the famous Beckenbauers, Bests and Cruyffs – the best players in the world went out there for a period of time to try and launch the league.
“Then we saw another boom, if you like, some 20 years after that when they started again – making it a big league with big players.
“I think it’s really been in the last 20 years where we’ve really seen a big difference: it’s well-structured and there are a lot of clubs. The clubs are monitored and have to pass a lot of requirements before they get the chance to build the franchise.
“They’re not making a league happen because they’re bringing players in from all over the world for enormous sums of money, except in these odd marquee players like we’re seeing now with [Sergio] Busquets and [Lionel] Messi; there are players like that who are going out there to boost the [game’s] image and to hopefully give something back to some of the young American players.
“It seems to me now that it’s well structured, it’s well thought-out, it’s considered, and it’s going to be made into a league which is self-sufficient, and not a league which is manufactured from top players from Europe and South America.”
On Palace’s opponents in Detroit and Chicago: Millonarios and Sevilla…
“[The opponents are] enormously difficult.
“We’ve got four games, as I see it, to really prepare what I’m thinking will be the team that will take us through the league season. That will start when we play Watford on Saturday in a behind-closed-doors game, but it will be a much stronger team than we’ve seen playing so far.
“Then, those last three games are really big games, but those are the games when I’m expecting really to test out the players who are going to be competing for the first XI spots in the team when we go to Sheffield for the opening game of the season.
“We will be tested, there’s no doubt about that – I’m going to need the squad… to make sure we get through the games without injury and everyone is getting the sort of minutes they need.”
